Francesco Bagnaia clasped one hand on the 2022 MotoGP world championship with an assured victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix to extend his points lead to 23.
The factory Ducati rider made a blistering start to blast from ninth on the grid to second by the time he exited Turn 1, a start replicated by title rival Fabio Quartararo who managed to climb from 12th on the grid to fifth by the end of the opening tour.
Despite looking a touch slower than pole-man Jorge Martin and the pursuing Enea Bastianini early on Bagnaia held firm in the runners-up spot for the opening third of the encounter, which then became the lead after the leading Pramac Ducati of Martin crashed at Turn 5.
Bastianini spied an opportunity and began to heap pressure onto Bagnaia for the subsequent few laps before eventually taking away the leadership at Turn 4.
Bagnaia refused to lie down and take it though as he remained fixed onto the rear wheel of the Gresini pilot, taking the lead back several circulations later to re-establish himself out in front.
Despite Bastianini looking to come back over the final few laps Bagnaia held firm, taking the chequered flag 0.270s clear of his countryman to secure his seventh – and potentially most crucial – win of the year to extend his series lead to a near-unassailable 23 with just 25 left on the table in the season-ending Valencia GP.
Quartararo did well to complete the rostrum in third on his underpowered Yamaha M1, the Frenchman fending off the advances of Marco Bezzecchi across the second half of the contest to end up just 2.7 seconds away from Bagnaia.
Bezzecchi therefore claimed a strong fourth for VR46 Ducati ahead of Australian GP victor Alex Rins for Suzuki who completed the top five.
Jack Miller enjoyed a formidable comeback to claim sixth on the sister factory Ducati having fallen as far as 20th following a slow start from 14th on the grid, the Aussie getting the better of Honda’s Marc Marquez in the final couple of tours.
Brad Binder moved up through the field to take eighth for the factory KTM squad ahead of the other Pramac-prepared Desmosedici of Johann Zarco.
Franco Morbidelli initially completed the top ten on the other official Yamaha despite having had to serve a double long-lap penalty for unnecessary blocking during practice, though was docked a positiion agaisnt Aleix Espargaro after the flag for what was deemed to be too harsh a move on him to take the spot.
Espargaro’s remote title hopes were finally ended though despite being given tenth, the Aprilia rider now forced to try and defend third overall from Bastianini as they enter the final race of the year with just two points in the Spaniard’s favour.
Cal Crutchlow rose to 12th across the final stanza for the RNF Yamaha squad after passing KTM’s Miguel Oliveira late on, while the other Aprilia of Maverick Vinales ran into tyre trouble late on to fall to 16th just behind Tech 3 KTM’s Raul Fernandez.
Joan Mir saw a potential top five run early go downhill as he began to drop back in the latter stages, his struggle capitalised with a late crash at Turn 1 that dropped him to 19th.
Darryn Binder saw a flying start – with which he moved from 24th on the grid to 12th – go to waste with a crash in the middling stages, while Fabio Di Gianantonio also crashed out early on.
